What Is The Kashmir Issue? Unknown Facts About Kashmir Conflicts Between India Pakistan

The entire Kashmir issue is based on the claims by the Muslim League that Kashmir belongs to Pakistan. Pakistan is known as a nation of all the Muslim majority provinces that were based in eastern and northwestern India, i.e., Punjab, Afghania (NWFP), Kashmir, Bengal, Sindh and Balochistan.

When the partition happened, the British had given these ‘princely states’ the power and right to decide if they wanted to join India or Pakistan. The Raadcliffe Line decided Punjab’s and Bengal’s fate, however no such lines existed for Junagadh, Kashmir and Osmania (Hyderabad Presidency). The fates of NWFP and Balochistan were undecided as well. Once the British left, India started annexing all the princely states and annexed most of the Muslim populated states including Osmania and Lassadive Islands. Pakistan tried to annexe Kashmir that was part of the Punjab Empire. Hari Singh Maharaj, who was the Punjabi King at that time, sought the intervention of the Indian Army to stop the Pakistani invasion. The Indian army agreed on the condition that Kashmir belongs to India and that is exactly what happened. The rest as they say is history.

Facts

India, Pakistan and China all claim to own either the entire area of Pakistan.

Kashmir lies to the Northern part of the Indian subcontinent to the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges. The state is about 86,000 square miles.

The conflict in Kashmir has claimed the lives of more than 47,000 people. This number does not include the number of people who have disappeared during the conflict.

While the statistics claim the number is legit, human right groups claim that the number is actually more than double the figure on paper.

India and Pakistan have been fighting to claim Kashmir since the countries gained independence in 1947.

The line of control that separates Indian and Pakistan in Kashmir spreads 700 km long.